Traditionally Ahead of Our Time Title page: Oral declaration of 2 November 1896 in which Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche and his father proclaim the foundation of F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. Traditionally Ahead of Our Time View of the Kleinbasel (northern) bank of the Rhine around with the help of simple extraction and reaction processes. 1896. Basel’s initial economic success can be traced to the After the Briton William Henry Perkin invented his textile bridge over the Rhine built in 1225 and its favourable dye Mauvein, the first commercially viable synthetic location on the north-south trade route. The Council of product, in 1856, interest in the chemicals capable of Basel in 1439 made the city a centre of paper manufacture. producing these novel, brilliant hues grew in Basel as well. Letterpress printing was introduced in Basel shortly after As early as 1859, textile industrialist Alexander Clavel the founding of the University by Pope Pius II around 1460, began producing synthetic dyes, an event that marked the and the city gradually became a printing and publishing start of the expansion of Basel’s chemical industry. centre. A textile industry developed in parallel, increasingly Aerial photo from Eduard Spelterini’s balloon specialising in the production of silk ribbons in the 17th century. Dyeing and processing these ribbons required dyes, soaps and lyes, which were produced by a supplier industry 1. 2. In 1894 banker Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, 26, joined Max Carl Traub to take over a small factory in Basel’s Grenzacherstrasse from druggists Bohny, Hollinger & Cie. Following a difficult first two years, Hoffmann bought out his partner and entered F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. in the Commercial Register. On the lookout for a lucrative product, Hoffmann, the scion of an old Basel textile manufacturing and merchant family, hit on the idea of internationally marketing medicinal products with standardised dosages and 3. effects under uniform brand names. The manufactur- ing basis for the idea was the extraction chemistry process, in which the active ingredients of drugs are extracted from natural raw materials. As early as 1897, before having a single successful product on the market, Hoffmann established subsidiaries in Italy and Germany in pursuit of his aims. The first hit product did not appear until 1898 in the form of Sirolin, a cough syrup based on the company’s antitubercular agent Thiocol. 4. 1. Fritz and Adèle Hoffmann-La Roche 2. The first product: Airol powder wound disinfectant 3. Roche general agency in Milan, 1897 4. F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co., Basel, around 1903 5. The newly established plant in Grenzach with the first automobile, around 1900 4 Traditionally Ahead of Our Time 5. ritz Hoffmann was born in Basel on 24 October 1868, the scion of an important manufacturing and mer- Fchant family. In 1885 he started an apprenticeship at a bank in Yverdon, followed by a further apprenticeship in 1889 at grocers and chemists Bohny, Hollinger & Cie. in Basel. In 1891 he mo- ved to London, then on to Hamburg in 1892 to work for grocers G. Lipman & Geffcken. Here he experienced the great cholera epidemic. To protect themselves against infection, the young employees drank great quantities of cognac, using or ange peel to improve the flavour. This experience would one day inspire Fritz Hoffmann to add orange flavouring to his bitter Thiocol cough syrup to create the successful product Sirolin. In 1893 he returned to Basel, where his father contributed 200,000 francs towards the purchase of an interest in Bohny, Hollinger & Cie. But Fritz Hoffmann’s superiors, uncomfortable with his dy- namic style of doing business, proposed that he take over the small chemical factory in Grenzacherstrasse on his own ac- count. He accepted, taking charge of the factory together with the company’s chemist, Max Carl Traub. Thus Hoffmann, Traub & Co. was born on 2 April 1894 in a small, five-year-old factory between the Rhine and Grenzacherstrasse, producing extracts, tinctures, salves, pills, linseed-oil varnish and floor waxes. On 2 May 1895 Fritz Hoffmann married Adèle La Roche. Their son Emanuel was born on 4 May 1896, followed by Alfred on 25 July 1898. On 1 October 1896, shortly after the establishment of the first foreign branch office in Grenzach, Max Carl Traub left the company. The business was recapitali- sed in 1898 and found itself with a successful product in Sirolin. Not until the outbreak of World War I would the company again face significant difficulties. But the Russian Revolu- tion in 1917 was a much heavier blow. With the loss of the Russian market, the company needed an immediate infusion of capital. Ul- timately, with the help of Basler Handelsbank (which was headed by Hoffmann’s brother-in- law Rudolf Albert Koechlin-Hoffmann), the enterprise was restructured through the formation of a limited company in 1919. The founder retained only a minority interest in the new company, F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. Ltd. All these nerve- racking events took their toll, and Hoffmann’s health wors- ened dramatically from 1918. In 1919 Hoffmann and his wife decided to dissolve their shaky marriage. Fritz Hoffmann later married divorcée Elisabeth Von der Mühll, formerly Staehelin. Fritz Hoffmann died in Basel on 18 April 1920 aged only 52. 5. 1. 2. 3. Sirolin rapidly became a best-seller thanks to Hoff- mann’s exceptional marketing talents. Hoffmann drove the Group’s international expansion relentlessly: by 1912 Roche had branches in nine countries on three continents. 4. 1. Roche headquarters at the Place des Vosges in Paris, 1903 2. Roche in New York, 1905 3. A shipment of medicinal goods arrives in Yokohama, 1920 4. Roche London managing director’s office, 1908 5. Sirolin advertisements, 1899–1915 6 Traditionally Ahead of Our Time 5. Traditionally Ahead of Our Time 7 1. 2. In 1904 Roche introduced the heart tonic Digalen, and in 1909 the painkiller Pantopon, two of the most import- 3. 4. ant medical innovations of their time. The company’s growth stalled during World War I as Roche was black- listed in both France and Germany for its international connections. The outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 proved a far greater blow, as Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche had made Russia Roche’s biggest market in the preceding years. With Roche near bankruptcy in 1919 as a result, the company was transformed into a limited company with the financial support of Basler Handels- bank. Fritz Hoffmann died soon afterwards in 1920. 5. 1. Digalen Roche against heart conditions, in heart-shaped bottle, 1904 2. Pantopon Roche, an anaesthetic and painkiller, 1909 3. Bond certificate, 1919 4. Bearer share certificate, 1932 5. Advertisements for Digalen and Pantopon, 1900–1935 6. Founding of St. Petersburg branch, 1910 8 Traditionally Ahead of Our Time 6. Traditionally Ahead of Our Time 9 After Hoffmann’s death, management of the company was taken over by Dr Emil Christoph Barell. Dr Barell had been hired as a chemist in 1896. In 1899 he be- came head of Roche Germany, where he soon showed 1. exceptional ability. As head of the parent company, Barell launched a turnaround process that sometimes involved harsh measures. In 1920 Roche brought its first synthetic product, the sleeping drug Allonal, to market. In 1933 Roche acquired Tadeusz Reichstein’s process for synthesing vitamin C and began to scale it up for mass production. Vitamin C marked the start of the company’s full commitment to chemical synthesis. While other companies, fearing bacterial contamination of their production sites, balked at a biotechnological 2. production step in the Reichstein process, Roche was able to master the challenge. The difference most likely lay in Roche’s lack of a technological paradigm: most competitors had arisen either from former dye factories based on chemical synthesis or from pharmacies and were thus fixated either on a technology (such as synthetic chemistry) or on the craft of the apothecary. Roche, however, was considerably more open to innovative and untried technologies and was able to focus its business on the medical problem early on. 3. 1. Chemical pavilion at the Swiss National Exposition, 1939 2. Laboratory at Roche Grenzach, Dr Markus Guggenheim on right 3. Redoxon Roche, synthetic vitamin C, 1933 4. Advertisements and collateral for Redoxon, 1930s 10 Traditionally Ahead of Our Time 4. Traditionally Ahead of Our Time 11 mil Christoph Barell entered this world on 13 Janua- ry 1874, son of draper Benjamin Barell of Gressonay- ESaint-Jean in Piedmont. The family was registered in Schaff- hausen from 1878, but Barell’s father died five years later. His mother Anna (née Hügi) married industrialist Josef Treu in Basel shortly thereafter. After his school-leaving exam in the autumn of 1892, Barell studied chemistry at the Swiss Fede- ral Institute of Technology in Zurich, earning his doctorate in 1895. On 1 February 1896 he joined Hoffmann, Traub & Co. as a chemist. In May he married Ida Leuzinger (née Studer), a woman nearly twenty years his senior. As head of Roche Grenz ach, Barell demonstrated extraordinary talent as both a scientist and businessman. During World War I he was ac- cused of a customs infraction by a recently dismissed employee and detained involuntarily for some time in Berlin. Barell was appointed managing director after Fritz Hoffmann’s death. He acquired Alfred Hoffmann’s interest in the company soon after, becoming one of its most important shareholders. Exten- sive and far-reaching restructuring proved necessary at first to save the company. Among other things Barell was forced to dismiss half the workforce. Gradually, however, a tentative recovery set in, giving Barell an opportunity to remodel Roche in accordance with his own notions.